[NEohioPAL] Berko review: NICK & JEREMY @ CPT/Theater Ninjas; CARMINA BURANA, CPT's DANCE WORKS

[Roy Berko]

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*NICK & JEREMY, more devised theatre at Cleveland Public Theatre; CARMINA
BURANA, CPT’s DANCE WORKS*



Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association & Cleveland Critics Circle)



What happens when two friends, Nick Riley, a drummer and performer, and
Jeremy Paul, a director and actor, meet over a number of months to talk
“stuff?”  Of course, they create a devised theatre piece, combining
interactions, vinyl, drumming and audience interplay, and name the
proceedings NICK & JEREMY.  Then, they make arrangements to have it staged
at Cleveland Public Theatre, the home of theatrical invention and
innovation.



This is not your traditional theatrical production.  This world premiere
staging is in the Storefront Studio theatre, a black box space, with a
thrust stage, that used to house a bookstore.



When you enter, you are greeted by the actors who engage you in
conversations based on questions they ask you and you ask them.



Finally, when they are in the right mood, the duo sits down at a small
table, have some coffee, and proceed to talk, occasionally getting up and
putting various records on an old fashioned turntable, play the drums, go
to a podium, do some shtick, and return to the table for some more talk.



The subjects they discuss range from whether one should wear a hat in the
theatre, to whether the red dot on the floor under the table is supposed to
be Mars, to foundational psychology, the operation of the brain, the sense
of self, enlightenism, the consciousness of reality, drugs, dreams, magic,
demons, the disappearance of the universe with only this room and the
people in it remaining, whether the “I” is really the “Me,” writing a
letter to oneself as a youth at age 80, suspended disbelief, situational
intentionalism, commitment, and whether, in fact, everything that the
audience is hearing is really only taking place in their individual heads.  The
vignettes finally come to a halt when the audience is taken on a personal
guided imagery.  Well, at least that is where it should have ended.  The
tacked on after-the fact ending added little.



Sound obtuse, too intellectual?  That depends on the listener.  If you hang
around coffee shops and play mind games, or you participated in all
nighters in college based on what was discussed, or should have been
discussed, in philosophy class, or you are addicted to probing for the
beyond, you’ll feel right at home.  You’ll really want to walk onto the
stage, which is no more than five feet away from anyone in the theatre, and
take part.



In fact, lots of people swarmed around the actors after the performance to
continue the dialogue.  Others walked out, got in their cars, and pondered
the meaning of life as they drove home with their heads full of random
thoughts, asking, “What in Hades did I just see and hear?”



*Capsule judgement: NICK AND JEREMY is an electric kool-aid acid trip,
minus the drugs, which would make Timothy Leary, the proponent of the use
of psychedelic substances and believer in” tune on, tune in, drop out,”
very happy.  It should be of great interest to deep or pseudo-deep
thinkers. *



NICK & JEREMY runs from March 29-April 13, 2013 at Cleveland Public Theatre.
For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to www.cptonline.org.



COMING UP:



The Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus and Children’s Chorus present *CARMINA
BURANA* on April 11, 12 and 13 (8 p.m.) and 14 (2 p.m.) at Severance Hall.  For
tickets call 216-231-1111 or go on line to clevelandorchestra.com


<clevelandorchestra.com>

DANCE WORKS '13, March 21-April 20, features five weeks of performances at
CPT by local dance companies.  For information and tickets go to
216-631-2727 or go to www.cptonline.org


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<clevelandorchestra.com>
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